Adaptation and Loss and Damage

Climate Change Adaptation and Loss & Damage, associated with the adverse effects of climate change, are among the priority thematic areas of our work. We aim to build on scientific evidence and information related to these issues to assist governments in designing policies and programmes to address the needs of the most vulnerable.

Our areas of expertise

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Our programs and studies mainly focus on scientific and economic analysis of adaptation options, including cost of residual damages and policy inputs. Our policy experts play an important role in providing real-time support and advice to delegates at UN Climate change negotiations on issues related to adaptation and loss and damage. Our experts have contributed to Africa’s Adaptation Gap reports, published in 2013 and 2015, and for the global level and study on Loss and Damage in Africa.

Latest

The countries on the front lines of climate change came away disappointed at the end of the two-day Suva Expert Dialogue last Thursday, as most rich nations simply failed to show up for discussions on what they can do to help the most vulnerable address the physical and financial impacts they face.

A technical debate flowing out of last year’s UN climate conference in Bonn could help determine the global response to the unavoidable loss and damage developing countries will experience as a result of climate change. “By now it is clear that climate change is as much an economic problem as it is an environmental one,” Climate Analytics states in a new blog post. For developing countries, in particular, “rising temperatures slow economic growth, [and] devastating climate-related impacts leave large negative imprints on economic development.”

At a meeting of the UN climate science panel in Montreal, Caribbean scientists – some of whom couldn’t make it to Canada because of Hurricane Irma – are urging a focus on extreme weather damage.
Quoting Climate Analytics' Dr Adelle Thomas.

2017, September 08

Publications

Loss and damage refers to impacts of climate change that occur despite adaptation and mitigation efforts. This brief provides a background on loss and damage, its importance for the Caribbean, tools and methodologies to determine costs of loss and damage, and potential innovative financing mechanisms. The region has seen an increase in the number of recorded weather and climate hazards and resultant impacts on biophysical and human systems. As global temperatures continue to increase, Caribbean SIDS face significant levels of both economic and non-economic loss and damage.

This research utilises interviews with UNFCCC climate change negotiators for SIDS and analysis of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, to assess the state of loss and damage management in SIDS.

The concept of non-economic loss and damage (NELD) captures the impacts of climate change that are hard to quantify and often go unnoticed by the outside world, such as the loss of traditional ways of living, cultural heritage and biodiversity. It also encapsulates losses whose valuation raises ethical concerns – loss of life and human health. This discussion paper offers a clarification of the concept and analyses the challenges in addressing NELD.

Non-economic loss and damage (NELD) has emerged as a
new concept in the negotiations under the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It
refers to the negative impacts of climate change that are
difficult to measure or quantify. The value of NELD cannot
easily be expressed in monetary terms, which has left them
mostly neglected in climate-risk and cost estimates. This briefing paper looks at the definitions, challenges and policy implication of NELD.

2016, February

Projects

This project provides francophone Least Developed Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa with science-based support when formulating their National Adaptation Plans (NAPs). In addition, it will give these countries access to international climate finance and establish national, international and regional platforms to share knowledge and experiences.

The EmBARK-project will investigate time scales and possible trajectories of socio-economic transformation processes and analyse their relevance as potential barriers to adaptation to climate change. An improved understanding of the temporal dynamics of such barriers is key in developing a more realistic understanding of future climate impacts and for scientifically robust assessment of future climate related loss and damage.

Produced for the AMCEN, the research aims at improving and understanding science related to loss and damage in Africa, as well as the existing mechanisms to address loss and damage and their limitations. The research also explores the options for institutional arrangements on loss and damage under the UNFCC and investigates the next steps related to the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage.
Project Period: 2013 - 2014

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